[Warning: Inside blogosphere baseball coming. Turn away now if you don’t care about this kind of thing.]

It appears Dave Hickman (David B. Hickman Jr.), better known now as Hickmania among the leftysphere in Ohio has had his cage rattled. He’s on the loose battling both progressives and the demons in his head alike. The latest incident with John Quinn and the PeeDee’s focus on the wrong phone number being published seems to have provided the perfect jumping off point for his outlandish rants and disjointed screeds. It’s all pretty well documented in the official Dave Hickman Hickmania thread here at PB.

The only place he’s allowed to comment anymore is on rightwing blogs, who gleefully welcome his bashing every liberal and left leaning blogger in the state. It’s a mystery why Dave behaves in such a manner, other than being jealous that nobody listens to him due to his abrasive nature and email spamming tactics. That’s how I first met Dave. Didn’t know the guy. All I know was there was some person emailing everyone essentially demanding we pay attention to his stolen election stuff and post on it. Many of us balked at this and told him to start his own blog, which he has never done to this day. This, apparently, has set off years of rambling emails, personal attacks and insults, and insanely disjointed screeds aimed at those who did not embrace Dave and his tactics. Mention Dave to most any blogger or leader of a progressive group in Ohio and you’ll likely hear “fucking idiot” somewhere in the conversation.

Ordinarily this would be completely ignorable, but his latest involves misinformation along with errors of omission. Dave tells a story about how I tried to “run him down” at Victoria’s Midnight Cafe (where, btw, you STILL cannot access BuckeyeStateBlog because Russell once had to ban Hickman at IP level – trust me I’ve been there for lunch and tried). The truth of the matter is Dave was actively ambushing a public wiki dedicated to the first Rootscamp Ohio event I was coordinating at ProgressOhio. Actively as in cluttering it up with his rants and screeds and personal attacks. Wanting to stop his disruptive behavior AND allow everyone to still have access to the site, I asked him via email to stop. He did not.

That’s when I decided to go confront him at his regular haunt, Vic’s. He wasn’t there, but Connie Harris was. Connie and I always got along, despite Dave’s attempts to paint me and others as the enemy. She confided in me that many were worried about his behavior and the bad name it might give them all. Connie, though staunchly progressive and not always on the same page as any one blogger, is still reasonable and willing to work with everyone to accomplish a common goal. She’s a tough cookie. Unlike Dave’s characterization, Connie told me how to find Dave after I told her what he was doing in sabotaging the Rootscamp wiki.

I go to his house and attempt to talk to him face to face. I’ve found this to be much more successful and exponentially more pleasant normally with David. He had been in my office several times while at ProgressOhio, ironically looking for help. He even passed along a detailed list of activists he worked with complete with emails and phone numbers. Dave can actually be a nice, reasoned fellow in the real world. Online he’s a complete lunatic.

There was no answer.

Dave claims I came there to provoke a physical confrontation, which without having opened the door to find out and cowering in his safe online disruptive persona, he has no way of knowing. I can tell you I was there to ask him to stop his disruptive behavior and maybe think about participating in Rootscamp Ohio in a positive manner. Maybe even hold a session on election protection and efforts to improve the systems in Ohio.

I’ve told Dave from day one how to play this and he has refused to be a productive part of the blogosphere. His disjointed, rambling, personal attacks on those on the left from bloggers to leaders of progressive organizations is legendary.

In fact, the only threat of physical confrontation Dave and I have ever had was when he was piggybacking on a protest at Clear Channel and he asked me if I were going to box him. He got in my face and puffed out his chest and I told him I didn’t have time for him. Of course, had he wanted a boxing match he knew what he needed to do. He didn’t.

Dave’s idiotic claims that I was forced to sit through a Rootscamp session is pure fiction. You can ask both Lisa Renee and Jill Miller Zimon if there is any truth to that. They’ll tell you Dave is full of shit. The other reason Dave wouldn’t have known? He was banned from the event and would have been escorted out because he decided to disrupt instead of be a productive part of it.

But that is the MO that is Dave Hickman (David B. Hickman Jr.). He disrupts.

It is funny to hear Dave accuse me of legal or ethical crossing of any lines. Seeing how it is Dave Hickman who (along with his buddy Matt Naugle) has attempted to smear me with the falsehood that I was fired from ProgressOhio when the truth is that my leaving was NOT desired. You can take that up with Rothenberg or anyone else at either ProgressOhio or ProgressNow. They’ll tell you Dave – again – is full of shit. His actively putting such known false information out is in legal danger land. I’ve got an idea who should tread lightly – and it’s not me.

Dave’s screeds are certainly good for comedic value from time to time. He’s pretty predictable in that. He obviously desires to languish with the rightwing blogosphere and continue to reinforce the fact that he has zero credibility with anyone who blogs or reads blogs.

Let me state for the record that I don’t agree with you regarding how you handled the J. Quinn affair. Having said that, it is particularly hilarious that on the PD’s blog post about the wrong phone number, there are two consecutive comments under two different names both clearly Hickman (we know the earmarks by now) AND THE SECOND RESPONDS TO THE FIRST.

I can attest that you were not forced to attend Jill & I’s presentation on testosterone neutral blogging. There was one male who could complain about being “forced” to both attend Rootscamp and that session. That would be my husband…He seems to have gotten over the experience.

Thanks LR. Your husband is a great guy too btw. Appreciate you telling it like it is and countering Hickman’s misinformation and constant smears.

I may not have learned much, but I did attend and came away with a greater level of respect for both you and Jill. It was a really good session and important in terms of us understanding how each other work.

Dave is still over at Naugle’s place with the other wingnuts hammering away. Funny, really.